Dictators in games

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Dictatorships are present in many games. Often as antagonists, and rightly so. Gotta punch them totalitarians, right?

Other games lets you be the dictator, sometimes humorously, sometimes meticulously modelled. Either way, there’s lots of dictators in video games and on the cusp of the release of the latest in the Tropico series, we thought it would be the perfect time to take a look back at some dictators in video games.

Taking place amongst natural beauty, the Tropico series sees you make the decision between being a benevolent statesman or a brutal dictator. Running a small nation takes a lot of work, and sometimes those greedy and lazy peasants need a bit of oppression to make them realise how good they have it.

Paradise can be what you make of it, and that’s the joy of the Tropico series. With Tropico 6 coming out shortly you’ll even be able to expand to new island types and archipelagos. Your paradise is your paradise, and no-one can take that away from you. Especially not if you have a thousand grim-faced guards.

In the Civilization series, you play as the strangely immortal ruler of, well, a civilisation. Through many periods of time you can and will choose different methods of enforcing your rule, and one of those is as a despot.

In Civilization, as well as many other 4X games, the game doesn’t judge your actions in the same way. Despotism is just seen as an alternative governing model, one that has up – and down – sides. Your people will probably not be the happiest in a dictatorship, but will you care when that’s offset by other benefits? You monster.

Ah Pagan Min. The face of Kyrat. The provider of crab rangoon. The pink-clad ruler of a mountainous kingdom.

He’s a colossal dick, but he’s a brilliant character. Right from the moment you meet him you know he’s going to absolutely be a highlight of your time in the clouds. He’s a charismatic but unhinged despot who rules Kyrat with a beautifully shod heel. You’ll never forget your time with Pagan Min. Why would you want to?

Dungeon Keeper

It’s Twenty Frankenstein-Teen: Become the Monster, so why not remember a time when you were a literal monster, in charge of a dungeon filled with monsters?

Dungeon Keeper sees you taking absolute power over a group of disparate monster groups as you seek to despoil the world above you. Rewards and punishments are yours to dispense, and if your minions aren’t abiding by your evil will you can even take direct control of them. Despotism has never been so direct as this.

Hitler. He was a baddie. Just making that clear before we go on to say anything else.

Appearing in several Sniper Elite games, you’re able to plop a bullet right into that fascist brain if you so choose. Or in some games you can fire your rifle of justice right into his groin. The Sniper Elite series is famous for meticulously modelling the interior of human bodies, and upon shooting a testicle you can find that the song is true, Hitler is running solo. Imagine having the job of modelling Hitler’s sole testicle. Video games.

Dictators are rife in video games, these are just a few examples out there. What’s your favourite or rather more accurately, least favourite examples. Let us know in the comments below.

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Alex "Theoban" McHugh is a massive RPG and classic gaming fan, recently though he's become consumed by The Elder Scrolls Online. He's also a devoted Warhammer 40k player, hoping to take his beloved Word Bearers to victory. At least, once would be nice. Follow Alex on Green Man Gaming here.